Presentation of Awards & My Job Talk

Award Presentations

The Club was delighted to make presentations to two of Northampton's unsung heroines today.

Graystone Trust

Nomination Citation for Lorraine Brangwyn by Lindsay Woodbridge, Directorate Manager Trauma & Orthopaedics at Northampton General Hospital

“Lorraine has been nursing for 38 years specialising in orthopaedics. For the last five years Lorraine has been the Sister on Althorp ward supporting elective orthopaedic patients. During that time Lorraine has seen many changes both in orthopaedics and the NHS in general. I am sure she remembers the days when patients undergoing hip replacements spent days in bed and had to be rolled very carefully for pressure relief. Now we get these same patients out of bed soon after surgery and many go home after just four days in hospital. As a ward Sister Lorraine has been an inspiration to her team, her knowledge and experience being invaluable. She ran a tight ship on Althorp but was at the same time supportive to her staff and maintained her dedication to the patients that passed through her ward. Lorraine retired towards the end of last year and will be sorely missed by all those who worked with. Lindsay her manager will certainly miss her organisational ability and her skills in being able to sometimes accommodate 20 patients in an 18 bedded ward, so that no one needed to be cancelled. Lorraine was an integral member of the wider orthopaedic team working closely and developing excellent relationships with consultants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and many others.  The place will not be the same without her.  However you can never keep a good nurse away for long and although she has officially retired Lorraine has returned to nursing in a part time capacity in pre-operative assessment where I am sure she is taking a special interest in the orthopaedic patients she knows will be passing through Althorp.”

Graystone Trust:  This was set up by Frank Graystone in 1987 with the income to be used to benefit an orthopaedic nurse nominated as outstanding by her hospital.  Last year, we made an award to a physiotherapist.

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Holland Bequest

Nomination Citation for Gene Mobb by Rtn. Roger Morris, on behalf of the Mayor’s Fund for the Housebound at Christmas

"Mrs. Gene Mobb has been a member of the Committee for the Mayor’s Fund for almost fifty years.  Up until about 1990 the Fund, which this Rotary Club has supported from its earliest times, was known as the Fund for the Bedridden.  When Gene Mobb originally became involved, there were ward committee arrangements based on the old County Borough wards, but gradually that fell away - and ward boundaries anyway were altered from time to time.  We understand that Gene Mobb was enlisted to help Mrs. Janet Dicks, a Conservative Councillor at the time who was the niece of Wenman Bassett-Lowke, and that Gene's list of nominated recipients in the former St. George’s Ward could have as many as fifty or even more names put forward.  The earliest surviving list of Gene Mobb’s nominations dates from 1977, when when her ward in fact had 69 altogether - about 10% of that year’s annual total of 677.  She would take the individual Mayor’s gifts round to the homes of the housebound recipients; and she has always recognised that even though the money makes a difference to people in need at Christmas, the personal visit and the interest taken in them mean a lot to the isolated beneficiaries whom the Fund supports.
Times and money values have changed, though these principles have not.  In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Fund typically paid out about six to seven hundred bursaries, every year.  The individual sum was raised from thirty shillings to £2 in 1969, the year when Alderman and Rotarian Jack Corrin agreed to become the Fund’s Auditor.  Gene Mobb's list of nominations has gradually dwindled with the passing years, and she now has only two surviving nominees, whom she visits each year once again.  The recipients have always been very grateful.  It is now time for this Rotary Club, which has actively collected for and supported the Mayor’s Fund for over ninety years, to recognise the exceptional personal service to the community that Gene Mobb has given to the Fund for so long, and to present her accordingly with our annual Holland Bequest cheque.”

Holland Bequest:  This was started with a bequest of £200 by JR Holland in 1952 and has been supplemented by further gifts and bequests.  An irregular award is made to someone the Club believes has done outstanding service for the community, with the recipient choosing the actual item received.  Last year, an award was made to a serial foster carer and the previous year to a long-term helper with NAB.